Optimizing the support team for a multinational chain of coffeehouses.
SITUATION
Our client had Tier III support employees helping licensed stores and doing lots of overtime work with little structure. This situation created rising costs and employee burnout which led to knowledge loss. Additionally, they lacked a formal process for incident management and Tier II and III resolution. Our client wanted to decrease turnover and increase the velocity of their onboarding program. Part of our client’s retention strategy was to create advancement opportunities for their support team. Due to our past success with the client and the strong trust that arose from that relationship, the client chose Apex to help them navigate this problem. The client wanted to drive efficiencies through the evaluation of the current state and identify areas for automation and improvements to drive stability. The targets for cost reduction were time savings associated with managing resources, improved retention, faster identification and onboarding of resources, efficiencies created by repeatable processes, and reduction of overtime.
77% Reduction in Overtime Costs
Apex deployed an initial team of seven consultants with additional consultants added to include data management capabilities. Our Apex Engagement Manager was responsible for onboarding the team, setting up a performance management cycle, and performance improvement plans. Our solution leader interviewed stakeholders and gathered information to understand ITIL practices including incident management, service level management, and problem management. The solution leader then built a roadmap for the maturation of ITIL practices and iterated based on stakeholder feedback.
A total of 15 consultants were assigned to the client including two systems engineers and five systems analysts for Tier II and III support. The team evaluated incident volume and optimized schedules to reduce overtime costs, balance workloads across teams, and help eliminate burnout.
RESULTS
Apex’s restructuring of the client’s team and schedules resulted in 94% retention among the team while also helping the client achieve 24/7 coverage. Additionally, the restructuring provided a 77% reduction in cost associated with paying overtime hours. The ITSM Assessment resulted in a roadmap and recommendation on how to achieve ITSM maturity.
